Voice dictation systems using earpiece microphone system and method

ABSTRACT

An earpiece for use in voice dictation includes a speaker disposed within the earpiece housing, a microphone, and a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the microphone and the speaker, wherein the processor is adapted to capture a voice stream from the microphone. The earpiece may further include a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece housing, the wireless transceiver operatively connected to the processor. The earpiece is configured to be controlled by a user through a plurality of different user interfaces to perform voice dictation.

PRIORITY STATEMENT

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/270,428, filed on Dec. 21, 2015, and entitled Voice Dictation Systems using Earpiece Microphone System and Method, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to wearable devices. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to voice dictation systems using ear pieces.

BACKGROUND

The use of voice to text dictation systems has slowly but steadily seen growth over the last ten years. What was a niche product is now starting to gain traction in multiple industries, including medicine, law, accounting, sales among others. However, the system is still extremely cumbersome and frustrating. Due to issues relating to articulation errors, background and ambient noise, difficulty with single phonemes as well as linkages into the receptor computer, voice to text dictation systems have yet to fully reveal their great promise. There are several factors that continue to pose challenges from a work flow and logistics standpoint. Chief among these factors is the microphone system currently required to provide the inputs into the voice engine. A wired, handheld microphone is still seen as the highest quality input device; this necessarily limits the accessibility of the device and its overall capability for utilization. Further, such microphones are relatively heavy, require the use of manual input controls and require placement near the mouth for optimal input quality. All of these factors contribute to the fatigue that the user generally experiences with such input systems.

Beyond these limitations, others exist. The dictation system has difficulty interpreting the natural flow of free speech; one must train their voice to follow the cadence optimization for the most accurate interpretation of the voice engine. In some cases, this optimization is seen in a colorimetric bar which responds to the vocal inputs in a real time fashion. This feedback is reasonable, but serves to introduce vocal strain on the part of the user. Such strain in detectable after use of the system for some time, and oftentimes does not significantly improve over time. Vocal fatigue involves a shift in the user's fundamental frequency (F0), and can progress to persistent hoarseness. What is needed is a new system that provides pure, digitized speech from the user's ear canal that is free from environmental noise, allowing the maximal optimization of the voice engine in order to increase the speed and accuracy of the voice speech to text. Such a system should preferably be wireless and allow for multiple methodologies for activation and deactivation of the input to the speech engine.

SUMMARY

Therefore, it is a primary object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to improve over the state of the art.

It is a further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide an earpiece sensor for voice production located at or within the external auditory canal of the user.

It is still further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide the ability to powerfully sense the self-voice.

Another object, feature, or advantage of the present invention is to limit the level and effect of background noise to optimize the speech to text engine for rapid interpretation of the input speech.

Yet another object, feature, or advantage of the present invention is to provide for enhanced control functions for interfacing the text to speech function within the document work product.

A further object, feature, or advantage is to allow for handsfree capability for speech to text input into a document work product.

A still further object, feature, or advantage is to allow for accelerometer based inputs for control of the text to speech input engine. For example, a nod of the head upward might initiate the ear canal microphone input, whereas a nod of the head downward might pause the ear canal microphone input.

Another object, feature, or advantage is to allow for specific placement of a voice snippet within a document.

Yet another object, feature, or advantage is to allow for a voice snippet to remain in its location in a document until final editing and sign off has been achieved. This allows final edits to completed with the advantage of the original voice input for comparison. Corrections from voice snippets may then be used to further enhance voice engine accuracy over time.

It is a further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to provide for accurate accuracy in the voice capture of a user of a wearable device.

It is a still further object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to markedly improve data capture from a wearable user due to isolation of the bone microphone.

Another object, feature, or advantage is to acquire patient voice signals in real time, using an external facing microphone to detect patient voice inputs.

Yet another object, feature, or advantage is to allow for instantaneous voice to text conversion.

A further object, feature, or advantage is to allow for capture of a voice snippet at a position within a document.

A still further object, feature, or advantage to allow for editing and correction of incorrect segments of the voice to text conversion.

Another object, feature, or advantage is to allow for standard edits to other non-voice sections of a document.

Yet another object, feature, or advantage is to allow for insertion of voice to text snippets at the direction of the primary user, in this case the health care provider.

A further object, feature, or advantage is to allow for the capture of the patient encounter at the point of service, greatly improving accuracy while simultaneously saving time and money.

A still further object, feature, or advantage is to reduce healthcare administrative costs.

One or more of these and/or other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow. No single embodiment need provide each and every object, feature, or advantage. Different embodiments may have different objects, features, or advantages. Therefore, the present invention is not to be limited to or by an objects, features, or advantages stated herein.

A new and novel system is provided utilizing a wireless, in the ear canal earpiece that allows for multiple input controls, whether by voice, control via touch screen, taps on the lateral aspect of the device at its input center, or through a novel use of accelerometer based controls. Such controls would have the advantages of allowing the user to remain completely hands free while able to control the various functions required of the vocal input. All of these controls may be optimized to increase the accuracy of the voice engine at natural language speeds in order to limit the fundamental frequency shifts seen in previous generation devices. These systems would be tailored to the individual business units that they serve, allowing for desktop input, field input, boardroom input and bedside input to name but a few. Such industries include law, insurance, medical, construction, government, financial, telecommunications, technology among many others.

According to one aspect, an earpiece for use in voice dictation is provided. The earpiece includes a speaker disposed within the earpiece housing, a microphone, and a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the microphone and the speaker, wherein the processor is adapted to capture a voice stream from the microphone. The system further includes a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece housing, the wireless transceiver operatively connected to the processor. The earpiece is configured to be controlled by a user through a plurality of different user interfaces to perform voice dictation.

According to another aspect, a method for voice dictation includes providing an earpiece, the earpiece including an earpiece housing, a speaker disposed within the earpiece housing, a microphone, a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the microphone and the speaker, wherein the processor is adapted to capture a voice stream from the microphone, and a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece housing, the wireless transceiver operatively connected to the processor. The method further includes capturing a voice audio stream using the microphone, receiving input from a first interface of the earpiece, and interpreting the input from the first interface by the processor, and receiving input from a second interface of the earpiece, and interpreting the input from the second interface by the processor.

According to one aspect, a system for voice dictation is provided. The system includes an earpiece. The earpiece includes an earpiece housing sized to fit into an external auditory canal of a user and block the external auditory canal, a first microphone operatively connected to the earpiece housing and positioned to be isolated from ambient sound when the earpiece housing is fitted into the external auditory canal, a second microphone operatively connected to earpiece housing and positioned to sound external from the user, and a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the first microphone and the second microphone. The processor is adapted to capture a first voice audio stream using at least the first microphone, the first voice audio stream associated with the user, and a second voice audio stream using at least the second microphone, the second voice audio stream associated with a person other than the user. The system may also include a software application executing on a computing device which provides for receiving the first voice audio stream into a first position of a record and receiving the second voice audio stream into a second position of the record.

According to another aspect, a method for voice dictation is provided. The method includes providing an earpiece, the earpiece having an earpiece housing sized to fit into an external auditory canal of a user and block the external auditory canal, a first microphone operatively connected to the earpiece housing and positioned to be isolated from ambient sound when the earpiece housing is fitted into the external auditory canal, a second microphone operatively connected to earpiece housing and positioned to sound external from the user, and a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the first microphone and the second microphone. The processor is adapted to capture a first voice audio stream using at least the first microphone, the first voice audio stream associated with the user, and a second voice audio stream using at least the second microphone, the second voice audio stream associated with a person other than the user. The method further includes capturing a first voice audio stream using at least the first microphone, the first voice audio stream associated with the user, storing the first voice audio stream on a machine readable storage medium, converting the first voice audio stream to text, placing the text within a first form field in a software application, and providing access to the first voice audio stream through the software application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a set of earpieces in greater detail.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of one of the earpieces.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a block diagram of one of the earpieces.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a screen display from a software application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system. As shown in FIG. 1 there are one or more earpieces 10 such as a left earpiece 12A and a right earpiece 12B. Although multiple earpieces are shown, only a single earpiece may be used. The earpieces 12A, 12B may be in operative communication with a computing device 2. The computing device 2 may be a computer, a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, or other type of computing device. There may be a display 4 associated with the computing device 2. A server 6 is also shown. The server 6 is in operative communication with a data store 8 such as a database. The server 6 may be a cloud-based server, a physical server, a virtual server executing on a hardware platform, or other type of server.

FIG. 2 illustrates a set of earpieces 10 in greater detail. A left earpiece 12A is housed within an earpiece housing 14A. The left earpiece 12A includes an outward facing microphone 70A. The right earpiece 12B is housed within an earpiece housing 12B. The right earpiece 12B includes an outward facing microphone 70B. The earpieces may be the earpieces which are commercially available from Bragi GmbH with modified software to perform functions described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of one of the earpieces 12. The earpiece 12 has an earpiece housing 14. Disposed within the earpiece housing is at least one processor 30. The processor 30 is operatively connected to at least one wireless transceiver 34 which may include a radio transceiver capable of communications using Bluetooth, BLE, WiFi, or other type of radio communication. One or more external microphones 70 and one or more internal microphones 71 are also operatively connected to the processor 30. In addition, a speaker 73 is operatively connected to the processor 30. Note that the external microphone(s) 70 may be positioned in order to detect or capture voice streams associated with one or more speakers other than the person wearing the earpiece (the user). The one or more internal microphones 71 may be, for example, positioned at or near the external auditory canal or mastoid bone of the user and may provide for picking-up bone vibrations or are otherwise configured to pickup frequency ranges associated with the person wearing the earpiece.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of an earpiece in more detail. The earpieces includes an intelligent control system 30 which may include one or more processors. There are one or more sensors 32 which are operatively connected to the intelligent control system (or one or more processors within the intelligent control system 30). Examples of sensors 32 may include an air microphone 70, a bone microphone 71, an inertial sensor 74, and an inertial sensor 76. Note that the bone microphone 71 may be different from the air microphone 70 in that the frequency response is selected to better pick-up bone conduction vibrations such as those associated with speech of a user of the earpiece. In addition, the bone microphone 71 may be positioned to better pick-up bone vibrations, such as being positioned proximate the mastoid or jaw bone or positioned within the external auditory canal. Having both a microphone 70 and a bone microphone 71 may be advantageous for various reasons when the earpiece is being used for dictation. For example, the microphone 70 may be preferentially configured for detecting ambient sounds including the speech of those other than the user whereas the bone microphone may be positioned and configured to preferentially detect speech of the user. Thus, a signal from the bone microphone 71 may be used or signal processing may use signals from both the air microphone and bone microphone in order to improve quality of the speech signal associated with voice dictation.

One or more inertial sensors 74, 76 are also provided. The inertial sensor(s) 74, 76 may be used as a part of one form of user interface as later explained herein. One or more speakers 73 are operatively connected to the intelligent control system 30. One or more light emitting diodes 20 may also be operatively connected to the intelligent control system 30. One or more transceivers 34, 35 may also be operatively connected to the intelligent control system 30 (which may include one or more processors). The transceivers may include a radio transceiver 34 such as Bluetooth, BLE, WiFi, UWB, or other type of radio transceiver. It is noted that one type of transceiver such as a near field magnetic induction (NFMI) transceiver may be used to connect an earpiece to a second earpiece or other wearable device while another type of transceiver such as a radio may be used to connect the earpiece to a mobile phone, tablet computer, or other computing device which may include a display.

A gesture control interface 36 may also be operatively connected to the intelligent control system 30 (or one or more processors associated therewith). The gesture control user interface 36 may include one or more emitters 82 and one or more detectors 84. The gesture control user interface may emit a field and then detect changes in the field such as caused by a user's interaction within the field. Thus, the gesture control user interface may detect gestures as performed by a user. This may include gestures such as a single tap on the earpiece housing, a double tap on the earpiece housing, a swipe in a first direction across the earpiece housing, a swipe in a second direction across the earpiece housing, a hold (a tap of sustained duration) on the earpiece housing, or other type of gesture. Various technologies may be used for the gesture control user interface including infrared emitters and detectors, ultrasonic emitters and detectors, or other types of emitters and detectors. The gesture control interface 36 may detect gestures made against an outer surface of the earpiece housing or near the earpiece housing.

Therefore, it to be understood that the earpiece may include multiple forms or sets of input controls, or multiple user interfaces. For example, a first type of user interface may be a voice interface. When the voice interface is used, a user may speak and a voice signal is directed by the bone microphone 71 and or the air microphone 70 or both. Thus, the voice interface may be used not only to provide speech to be transcribed but also to control the interface. Certain words or phrases may be reserved by the system as voice commands or may be viewed as commands when contextual indicators indicate that they are being used as voice commands. In addition, the voice interface may be accessed by saying a particular word or phrase, for example, “Bragi”, “Hey Bragi”, “OK Bragi” or other such command. In addition, the voice interface may provide for communicating audio to one or more speakers 73 of the earpiece. For example, the earpiece may ask questions of the user to confirm statements made.

Another example of a type of user interface which may be used is the inertial sensors 74, 76. For example, instead of giving verbal feedback through a voice interface, a user may provide feedback through movement. Thus, for example, an audio message such as “Are you ready to dictate?”, a user may nod their head in an up and down manner to indicate “Yes” or alternatively a use may move their head back and forth to indicate “No.” Similarly, a list of options or a menu or other hierarchical structure may be presented where a user may select options through head movement. Note that this type of user interface may be advantageous over one where a user provides input to control dictation via voice where the user is engaged with others. Thus, the user can control voice dictation functions without actually speaking or to speak only to activate a menu function. Software to perform such functions may be stored on a machine readable storage medium such as memory 31.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a software application which includes a screen display 100. Various form fields 102, 106 are shown. Another form of user interface includes using a display such as a touchscreen display on a remote device. Thus, for example, a user may select a particular form field and then may populate that field by speaking with the voice stream transcribed and placed within the field. Other type of on-screen controls may be used as well.

Therefore, methods and systems for voice dictation using multiple user interfaces have been shown and described. Although specific embodiments are shown here, it is contemplated that any number of options, variations, and alternatives may also be used. The present invention is not to be limited unduly to specifically what is shown and described herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An earpiece for use in voice dictation, the earpiece comprising: an earpiece housing; a speaker disposed within the earpiece housing; a microphone; a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the microphone and the speaker, wherein the processor is adapted to capture a voice stream from the microphone; a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece housing, the wireless transceiver operatively connected to the processor; wherein the earpiece is configured to be controlled by a user through a plurality of different user interfaces to perform voice dictation; wherein the plurality of different user interfaces comprises an audio interface using at least one of the speaker and the microphone; wherein the plurality of different user interfaces further comprises a gestural interface having at least one emitter and at least one detector operatively connected to the processor for detecting gestures performed by a user wherein the gestural interface receives user input in a form of at least one of taps and swipes; wherein the plurality of different user interfaces further comprises an accelerometer disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the processor wherein the accelerometer is positioned to detect head movement of a user wearing the earpiece and wherein the processor is configured to interpret the head movement of the user as voice dictation commands.
 2. The earpiece of claim 1 wherein the plurality of different user interfaces further comprises a touchscreen display interface on a device remote from the earpiece.
 3. The earpiece of claim 1 wherein the microphone is positioned to be isolated from ambient sound when the earpiece housing is fitted into the external auditory canal of a user.
 4. The earpiece of claim 1 wherein the microphone is configured and positioned to detect bone vibrations associated with speech of a user.
 5. A method for voice dictation, the method comprising: providing an earpiece, the earpiece comprising: an earpiece housing; a speaker disposed within the earpiece housing; a microphone; a processor disposed within the earpiece housing and operatively connected to the microphone and the speaker; a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece housing, the wireless transceiver operatively connected to the processor; capturing a voice audio stream using the microphone; receiving input from a first interface of the earpiece, and interpreting the input from the first interface by the processor in performing the voice dictation; receiving input from a second interface of the earpiece, and interpreting the input from the second interface by the processor in performing the voice dictation; and receiving input from a third interface of the earpiece, and interpreting the input from the third interface by the processor in performing the voice dictation; wherein the first interface of the earpiece is a voice interface; wherein the second interface of the earpiece comprises an inertial sensor operatively connected to the processor and wherein the processor is configured to interpret movement detected using the inertial sensor; wherein the third interface of the earpiece comprises a gesture based user interface having at least one emitter and at least one detector operatively connected to the processor and configured to detect taps and swipes.
 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising receiving input from a display on a screen remote from the earpiece. 